According to Stanford University:

“Americans throw away 25% more trash during the Thanksgiving to New Year’s holiday period than any other time of year. The extra waste amounts to 25 million tons of garbage, or about 1 million extra tons per week!

If every family reused just two feet of holiday ribbon, the 38,000 miles of ribbon saved could tie a bow around the entire planet. If every American family wrapped just 3 presents in re-used materials, it would save enough paper to cover 45,000 football fields. The 2.65 billion Christmas cards sold each year in the U.S. could fill a football field 10 stories high. If we each sent one card less, we’d save 50,000 cubic yards of paper.”

The pointlessness of such waste is nearly incomprehensible.  There are so many wonderful, creative, and beautiful alternatives to wrapping paper and holiday cards, and so many ways to recycle, reuse, and repurpose those that are already in production.  Save some trees (not to mention reducing some of the other pollution caused by the production and dying of mass produced holiday paper products), and save some money with these beautiful, fun, and more sustainable holiday card and gift wrap alternatives:

GIVING:
Green Holiday Card Alternatives

1.  Make your own from recycled materials – There are tons of tutorials out there on using newspaper and other forms of waste paper as gift wrap (see below), but precious few on how to use waste paper to make gift cards, which surprises me.  Look for a tutorial on just that right here on Urban Earthworm very, very soon.

On of my all-time very favorite ways to make my own cards/paper/greetings, is by making home-made seed paper.  This is way easier than it sounds, recycled waste paper, and results in a greeting that can be planted instead of thrown away!  There are many ways to make seed paper, most just involving paper, water, a blender, seeds (the seeds do NOT go in the blender), and a drying method.  Check here for one example.  Once you’ve made your seed paper, use it to write a nice holiday note, print a holiday newsletter on it, or make it into a card by attaching a holiday image cut from an old magazine to it.  Voila!  My hands-down favorite idea.

2.  Purchase cards made of recycled materials – in very much the same vein as discussed in the Gift Giving Guide, if you decide you want to purchase cards to send, there are easy ways to ensure the cards you buy have the smallest negative footprint and the money you spend goes somewhere worthwhile.

Look for cards made from 100% recycled materials – 100% post-consumer recycled is best.

Look for cards whose proceeds benefit a charity.  Last year, we gave cards that benefitted Amnesty International and were printed on recycled paper. (This year my goal is to make the cards).

If you like the custom printed cards like those with family pictures on them, keep in mind that there are many companies out there from which you can get such cards printed on recycled paper with vegetable based ink, such as Greenfield Paper, BuyGreen,  GreenerPrinter, Conserveatree, and My Good Greetings.  That’s just a beginning list of the possibilities.  I haven’t done a lot of research on these, and I can’t endorse any one in particular, but they are all better than just ordering from environmentally irresponsible card printing companies.  Some of those listed even have seed paper cards!

3.  Go Paperless! – I admit that I love getting cards in the mail, even if I do worry about the waste.  Getting mail is fun and personal, which is why many people (including me) shy away from digital holiday greetings, but there are actually a number of ways to send holiday cards online that ARE personal, fun, and unique in addition to being the best choice for sustainability.

Want to send a family newsletter or photo card?  Make one exactly as you would for mass mailing, but email it instead, and attach a personal message to each individual email.

Use your card addressing time to write personal messages to people you would otherwise send impersonal cards to.

Go through the 1,000’s of digital photos we all hoard on our computers these days, and send pictures targeted at the recipients (for instance when you send your holiday greeting to your cousin, include pictures of her at your wedding or from your summer visit to her house).  If you know anyone who has suffered a loss, find pictures of their lost loved one that they may not have.

A popular new trend involves making YouTube or other internet video holiday greetings – there is a LOT of fun potential with that.

This year, I will probably only send paper invitations to a few people, mostly those who don’t use the computer regularly.

Please send me your creative digital card ideas (or any ideas that would fit in this post) and I’ll include them in the list!

Green Wrapping Paper Alternatives

This sections possibly could have been it’s own post.  There are thousands of ideas out there for alternatives to wrapping paper.  I’ve been on board with it for a while, though not with much skill.  I wrapped most of Flintstone’s birthday presents in sheets and pillowcases, but I can’t say it was pretty.  The ideas below, though, they are very pretty, mostly easy (because that’s how I roll), and would make excellent family crafts – a great way to teach the kids about sustainability and not wasting!  And, inspired by the absolute plethora of ideas out there for not only wrapping paper alternatives, but also for reusing wrapping paper, cards, etc., I’ve started a Pinterest board specifically to link to the ideas I couldn’t fit in this post, but which seemed like great ideas.  Check it out.

1. Old Paper – the classic and beloved method of wrapping gifts in old paper is getting new life.  First, I think black and white newsprint with a red bow is just beautiful.  Second, there is so much more potential and creativity that goes into this kind of wrapping these days, the possibilities are nearly endless.  This bodes well for me, because I have a MOUNTAIN of old magazines just waiting to find some second purpose.  Here are some ideas:

http://howaboutorange.blogspot.com/2009/10/make-gift-bow-from-magazine-page.html

And it doesn’t stop at wrapping:

Most of these ideas feature old newspaper and magazines, but just look around you, there is waste paper everywhere just waiting to be re-purposed.  My huge desk calendar is destined to be covered in my children’s art (on the blank backs), and used as giftwrap.  Old calendars and phone books.  Out of date maps make particularly adorable wrapping.  You can even customize it.  Old dictionary pages for the grammar nerd.  Comics for your resident class clown.  Discarded architecture plans for the engineer in your life.  The potential for creativity is wide open!  Even old plastic bags (from the days before you got your environmentally friendly canvas bags)  have potential:

2.  Wrap it in something useful – I wrapped MacGyver’s birthday present last year in a new tee-shirt for him.  There are tutorials out there specifically on how to fold shirts as giftwrap.  You can also use scarves, pashminas, fabric scraps (if you or your recipient sew), towels – any fabric really. Use re-usable bags instead of disposable gift bags.  The gift bags you buy in the card section are sometimes 4 or 5 dollars a piece when the reusable shopping bags up front with the cute designs are only 99 cents, and are REUSABLE.  Seems a little obvious.  And even if the paper gift bags are cheaper, they haven’t got a single advantage over re-usable bags – paper bags rip, pollute, and even though they can be reused, they crumple. There are so many absolutely adorable re-usable bags out there that can easily double as gift bags, I honestly see no reason to ever buy a “disposable” gift bag. Check out these reusable gift bags made of recycled materials:

3. Don’t Wrap It; Hide It – Finding baskets on Ostara or Easter is a blast, why not have that fun more often?  And who wouldn’t love opening up their sock drawer and finding a new watch?

4.  Give Experience.  Like This.  – Sometimes the best gifts don’t need to be wrapped at all.  Click the link for ideas of gifts of experience.

Tune in Soon for the next installment:  What to do with all the wrapping paper and holiday cards you receive this year.

* Every image on this post, while public domain, was linked to a tutorial and the creator of the image, but for some reason many of those links got wiped out.  If you own any of the images, please let me know so I can give you credit!

The post Sustainable Holidays: Wrapping Paper and Holiday Card Alternatives appeared first on Urban Earthworm.

As with any other event we have, we wanted to keep Flintstone’s Second Birthday party as sustainable as possible. And, as with everything else in our lives, this goal had to work around our own crazy busy schedules.

Now, I’m not the kind of mom who goes all out for a birthday my baby is not going to remember. No theme, no custom tee-shirts, no over-the-top decorations.  I don’t live my life for the pictures (though I still take tons of them), and neither do my kids.

I can still hardly believe that my baby is already 2 years old, though just looking at him, it’s obvious.  Especially with his new haircut (not pictured here), he looks more like a little boy than a toddler anymore.  He’s off the charts developmentally, both his doctor and his daycare tested him and found him to be closer to be closer to 3 than 2.  He’s sweet, loving, and funny.  He loves to talk, puts together sentences, wants to help with everything, and is always ready to give a hug.

Coming up to his birthday, we weren’t even sure we were going to have a party. My surgery was originally scheduled for 11 Sep, which was before F’s birthday, and we were just going to do something very small at home, but when my surgery date got pushed back (again), I took advantage of the newly opened weekend to schedule a little party for him.

So how was it sustainable (and how wasn’t it)?

Parties – at least kids’ birthday parties – are about food, decorations, and presents.  And it is in those three categories that I attempted to be a little more sustainable.

–  I made an amazing vegan carrot and zucchini cake which will get it’s own post (ideally on Monday).

–  We also had fruit and veggie trays (a mixture of local, organic, and grocery-grade), and air popped popcorn.  Obviously, that is only partly sustainable, but I also give us points for using real dishes and silverware instead of disposable, and anything that did get thrown away was actually recycled or composted.

– On that note, if we HAD decided to use paper plates and the like, we would have chosen some of the compostable options on the market right now.

– There will be more on party food sustainability (and nutrition) in the Birthday Cake post.

– To make the gifts we gave him more sustainable, we started at a locally owned thrift store that specializes in kids’ stuff. Sure, some of the gifts he got were still major brands that may have questionable practices, but NONE of our purchase dollars went to those companies, the went to local business. Buying things second hand, aside from being a good value, is an excellent way to perpetuate recycling.

– Even though I specifically asked our guests not to bring gifts, they did (because they are wonderful and generous friends). And I was thrilled to find out that all of them, knowing me, made an effort to bring local, sustainable, and recycled gifts. Books from the local small bookstore. Toys from thrift stores and made out of recycled plastics. This was the best part of the party for me – seeing that other people know, understand, and support my efforts to run a more sustainable household.

– I wrapped most of the gifts we gave Flintstone in sheets and pillowcases, and re-used one bag he had previously received a gift in. It wasn’t flashy and pretty, but it didn’t make a difference to him. It could have been prettier, though. Gifts wrapped in old newspapers can be very pretty. Kids can also color on the paper, adding another aspect of fun. Give reusable bags as part of the gift, and put the gift in it! In the past, I’ve wrapped gifts for Punky and MacGyver in shirts or towels I had gotten them as gifts. The bags and tissue paper from the gifts that were brought have been saved and will be recycled. This was a wrapping paper free birthday.

– Decorations were minimal. As I said, I didn’t see any reason for a theme or flashy decorations when Flintstone won’t even remember anyway. The only decoration I used – though admittedly not particularly sustainable – was a huge hit: We just blew up about 50 balloons in various shapes and sizes and threw the, all over. What can I say? F LOVES balloons. I’m not perfect when it comes to sustainability. The amount of laughter, squeals, and fun in our house since I blew up those balloons was worth it. The other kids loved them, too. I wonder if there is a such thing as environmentally friendly balloons?

The party was a blast. Flintstone is now 2. And he will tell me he’s 2, but only me. He’s still a mama’s boy, and I will continue to eat up every minute of it.

The last thing I want to note is just a new tradition I’ve started, that I’m pretty tickled by:

I bought this book at a local bookstore. It is a sweet story by a local author and is related to the history of the area where we currently live. At the party, I asked guests, instead of bringing cards, to write birthday wishes and memories for Flintstone in the book. I’m going to do one every year for his birthday with an age appropriate book somehow related to the year and the party guests. This may be our last year in the Lowcountry with all our wonderful friends here, who F has known since he was born. Which is why we chose this book.

Hope you’re all having a lovely weekend, and if please forgive me if this post is at all disjointed or rife with typos. I’m still on a lot of drugs from my surgery.

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